Sermon Tone Analysis

! Close Encounters Of The God Kind

!

The Brain Barrier

Mark 7:1-13

 

 

In 1976 four men, including a pair of twins, sought adventure in the Allagash Wilderness of northern Maine.

*What they saw and experienced that night changed their lives forever.*

Not one, but all four alleged that they were abducted by strange alien beings.

This incident ranks as one of the most compelling abduction accounts because it is supported by multiple witnesses.

Highly respected ufologist, Raymond Fowler, has written a book called /The/ /Allagash Abductions/, which is composed largely of interview transcripts with the four men, along with sketches of what they claim to have experienced.

Fowler methodically explores the simultaneous abductions of four men and provides overwhelming and compelling evidence that would stand up in court!

This incident was dramatized on “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Whether you believe in these kinds of “Close Encounters” or not, you must admit that anyone who claims to have had one is changed forever!

We are presently involved in a series of messages entitled:  “Close Encounters Of The God Kind.”

This title is taken from one of the most spectacular UFO science fiction films of all times.

It was entitled:  “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

In this series, we are studying close encounters with God, by likening them to close encounters with UFO’s.

When a person has a close encounter with a UFO, it is an experience that changes that person’s life forever.

Likewise, when a person has a close encounter with the Jehovah God, it is an experience that changes that person’s life forever.

This series comes at a very crucial time in our society.

We live in a Postmodern society that is very spiritual.

People are consulting Eastern mysticism, amulets, crystals, etc.

They want a spiritual experience.

But, they will never have a true spiritual experience, until they have an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

We use to witness by starting with a need and moving to the Gospel.

Now, we would probably be more effective by starting with people’s spirituality, and then showing them how to find deeper spirituality in Christ.

The same is true for believers.

We have been impacted by the attitude of the age, as well as the move of God, and we want to have an encounter or experience with the true and living God.

In the first sermon in this series, we defined “A Close Encounter Of The God Kind.

In that first sermon, we also defined worship as ascribing or attributing to God the worth that He is due, and we talked about encountering God and experiencing that encounter.

In the second sermon, we dealt with the phrase “a genuine response of worship.”

We defined “a genuine response of worship” as “wholehearted worship.”

“Wholehearted worship” is a genuine response of worship that encompasses all of one’s body, soul, and spirit; i.e. all of one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength; i.e. all of ones inner life and all of one’s physical vitality and energy.

In the last sermon, we discussed how people are changed forever through “a genuine response of worship” to a preaching encounter, which will cause them to move and grow through the over-recording of the intuitive tapes of their core beliefs.

*Yes, you will need a tape of that message.*

In the last sermon, we completed the definition of “A Close Encounter Of The God Kind,” which we will use throughout the remainder of this series.

It is as follows:

 

A “Close Encounter Of The God Kind” is a face-to-face meeting with God that cannot be totally explained, but which—when fully experienced—will bring about a response of genuine worship or celebration, which includes the remembrance of a redemptive past and~/or the conviction of a liberated future that changes people forever; causing them to move and grow by over-recording the intuitive tapes of their core belief.

All right!

We have a good working definition of “A Close Encounter Of The God Kind.”

We have also touched upon the fact that God initiates these close encounters.

We may initiate them in a way, after God has already initiated them, but God is really the Initiator.

*So, the question is, “Why don’t we just experience these close encounters, respond with celebration, and see the dynamic change of God in our lives?”*

*Well, I believe there is something blocking these close encounters.*

There is a very prominent and specific barrier to having a close encounter with God.

That is what I want to talk about today!

If you have been at this church for the last five to ten years, you have heard me discuss this barrier before.

I have talked about it, at various times and in various ways.

But I believe that this will seem like new material to many of us, because when the Spirit gives us ears to hear, we hear far differently than when we are trying to hear in our own power.

To begin to identify this barrier, let’s go to the Word of God.

I would like for you to turn with me to Mark 7:1-13.

Let me read this aloud for us.

The two groups involved here are the Pharisees and the scribes.

The Pharisees were the largest and most influential religious-political party of the Jews during New Testament times.

The Pharisees were religious and they were legalistic.

They believed that keeping the law entitled them to unique national privileges with God.

Therefore, their whole system of religion evolved into 613 laws designed to keep them from breaking the law.

The scribes were Pharisees who were considered experts in the Law of Moses.

They mystified the law and made it difficult to understand.

\\         These Pharisees and scribes gathered around Jesus and began to question Him as to why some of His disciples ate with impure hands; i.e. they had *not* cleansed their hands with the customary ceremonial washing.

*This group wanted to know why the disciples were not keeping the traditions of the elders.*

It is in this context that Jesus makes the statement that we want to work with.

This statement is made in

 

Mark 7:6-7, “And He said to them, ‘Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”’”

What is Jesus saying to these Pharisees and scribes?

Well, Jesus is actually quoting Isaiah 29:13, which is about the judgment of Jerusalem, and applying it to the Pharisees and the scribes.

He is saying that they missed the essence of true worship, and He tells them why.

*The people were honoring God with their lips, but not with their hearts!*

/(Now exactly what is Jesus saying?)/

Honoring God with their lips was only partially honoring God, because the lips are only a portion of a person—*not* the totality or core of the person.

The word for heart here is /kardia/.

/Kardia/ is the inner life, the center of the personality and the place in which God reveals Himself to men.  /Kardia/ is the intellect, emotion, and will.

*Jesus is contrasting the lips with the heart.*

The lips were only a part of the person, while the heart represented whole person.

*God only accepts honor or worship that involves the whole heart or the whole person!

*Mark that down!

Pray about it!

Ask God to reveal the truth of it to you!  Then receive the truth by faith!  *It is one of the little known, little understood, and yet most important truths in the Bible!*

This was demonstrated in the life of Judas.

Judas was evil in his heart.

Judas could honor Jesus with his lips, but his heart was far from Jesus.

The Bible tells us about Judas in

 

Matthew 26:48, “Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, ‘Whomever I shall kiss, He is the one; seize Him.’

And immediately he went to Jesus and said, ‘Hail, Rabbi!’ and kissed Him.”

 

*The greeting, “Hail, Rabbi!” was one of blessing, but it was not in keeping with what was in the heart of Judas.*

The word “hail” means “be cheerful, or be happy, or God’s speed.”

The word “Rabbi” was “a title meaning, ‘my master,’ applied to teachers and others of an exalted and revered position.

During the New Testament period, the term rabbi came to be more narrowly applied to one learned in the Law of Moses” (/Holman Bible Dictionary/).

Jesus was called “Rabbi” by other disciples.

Judas said, more literally, “I bid you God’s speed my Master,” but his words were the prelude to betraying Christ.

*He honored Jesus with His lips, but his heart was far from Him.*

One scholar said, “When men are natural, heart and mouth act in concert, but otherwise the mouth sometimes professes what the heart does not feel” (Plummer).

*Jesus is saying that worship requires every part of their inner being, i.e. thoughts, feelings, and choices, not just their words.*

How many people, this very morning, fill the churches of America and sing and mouth words that are far from their hearts?

How many people, this very morning, are here in this church singing with us and shouting God’s praises, but their hearts are far from Jesus.

Their hearts are still at the bar last night; still selfishly seeking their own interests; still willing to sell Jesus out for a raise or promotion; singing “I surrender all,” but won’t give ten percent this morning; saying “Hallelujah,” which means “Praise ye Jehovah!” but don’t read their Bibles or pray outside of this room.

/(All right, back to the text.)/

Jesus goes on to say that the Pharisees worshipped Him in vain, or to no purpose, and one of the tip-offs was what they did with God’s commandments.

*Those who genuinely love and worship God keep His commandments, but these Pharisees had replaced the commandments of God with the commandments of men.*

Oh, how often this goes on today!

How many have replaced God’s commandments with their own commandments in the area of praise and worship with thoughts and statements like “I understand what the Bible says about praise and worship, but I don’t believe it takes all of that!”; in the area of giving, which is also worship; in the area of human sexuality; in the area of abortion; in the area of marriage, divorce, and remarriage; and I could go on and on.